"It is what it is" "Things Are what they are"

I think these two phrases (see title) will be my mantra for the forseeable future. Like everybody else, I have spent hours worrying and fretting about "Tt is what it is."

Whether it has to do with health, family problems, church worries, the present quagmire that our country is slowly but surely sinking into, spiritual questions, a changing society -- you name it; I've worried about IT, thinking that in some mysterious, out-of-the world way, I might be able to do something to change things.

Well, I've come to realize the valildity of this statement: "it is what it is." Now, that puts me right in the middle of everything, because I live smack dab in the middle of what it is!

No escape from poor health, no escape from church problems, no freedom from responsibilities that I would rather not have, no ability to change (in any significant way) the slippery slope that our country is on, no magic wand to heal broken relationships, no miraculous salve to bind up and cure physical disease.

The unvarnished truth as I see it, is that I am only one of countless millions of human beings who sooner or later have to face up to the fact that "it is what it is." and "things are what they are." And a sober acknowledgment and acceptance of that reality seems to somehow stiffen my spine and enable me to say "Okay, so I will deal with IT!

And I do. I use whatever aids and props and encouragements I can find to help me along this difficult and onerous and sometimes frightening path. I use my Christian faith, I lean on my husband -- when he is not too tired, I use friends who love me, I call on my own children for strength,

I find truth in books, I find beauty in nature, I find love in some very unusual places.

"It is what it is," things are what they are," and this is LIFE.


Now ------- to be really, really honest: Those things are what I do ON GOOD DAYS!!

What I do ON BAD DAYS IS PRETTY UGLY. I don't spend much time in praying or reading my Bible because I don't think God is anywhere nearby and I"m not sure He has any interest in talking to me because I'm not interested in talking to Him.

If I'm with a good friend, I may open up a tiny bit but I usually just stew around and skirt around what's bothering me because I don't want my friend to see what a horrible person I am.

I surely don't share with my own children all of my confusion, my hatreds, my feelings of frustration and belligerence, my desire to get into my car and drive off into the sunset,leaving everybody behind!! Can't do that!! What would they think of their dear old Mom?

As for seeing beauty in nature??? Don't see anything but the blasted cold rain and the dreary day.

Find truth in books? There's no such thing as truth and if there were, on a day like this, I wouldn't know it if it slapped me in my face.


So where am I? What am I saying now?

I'm taking a deep breath and sighing big. I'm saying "it is what it is," "Things are what they are" and THIS IS ALSO LIFE. So ---- go figure!